Friday, 12 June 2009

This post is in reply to an email I received this morning. ‘Am I Oriental or Asian?’

Well I’m totally au fait with both, as well as being red, amber, green and smurfy blue. But I’m first and foremost a Londoner.--------

On a more foodie issue, I had this for dinner this evening. Vermicelli stir-fried with chicken, vegetables, shrimps, egg and fish-cake. It was free and with thanks to Bali Bali restaurant.I don't on principle review restaurants or cafes that provide yours truly with freebies. There was however one place I did write about that was precisely the case, but it has since been removed from the blog.

14 comments:

Remember we had that discussion. I was calling 'oriental' people Asian. You said I should use the term 'oriental'. On Twitter I see that some don't like that term...foodieguide for instance.I suppose Asian in Britain often means Indian sub-continent. I used the term Asian because I learnt that in the States where they used to have less people from the Indian sub-continent.All I know is that they like their food!

MML- Asians in the UK stipulate and has been accepted as describing the good folks from or of (origin) the "Indian Subcontinent". Both Andy Pipkin and Vicky Pollard couldn’t tell any differences between a Chinese, Japanese, Korean or perhaps even a Kazakh person; so as far as this group is concerned, the term Oriental is appropriate. And yes there are more ‘Asians’ than ‘Orientals’ residing here in the UK, obviously someone in the Home Office or the press decided it was a good idea (years ago) to rewrite the word Asian. However outside Blighty, all Orientals are Asians and the people of the Indian Subcontinent are somewhat more clearly defined as either Indian, Paskistani, Bangladeshi, etc. The person who sent me the mail wished to remain anonymous and alerted me to Twitter.

Im not proud but I think I kicked this off through an inadvertent mention on Twitter. I think the term Oriental is considered derogatory in the US but I personally dont find it insulting in any way. To me, it specifies a region within a very large continent, very much like "Scandinavia" specifies a region in Europe. Good to hear your thoughts on this. Hope I didn'y annoy too many people!

Yeah I was in the conversation on Twitter yesterday. I have used the term 'Oriental' in a blog post. I'd heard the term was widely used in the UK when I studied such things as part of my masters and also I'd seen other bloggers using it so I felt bad yesterday when foodieguide and supercharz said they found it offensive. I had absolutely no idea and I'll use the term 'Asian' from now on. From a fellow Londoner :)

Helen- please feel free to use the word Oriental as far I'm concerned. You see if you said bellaphon was Asian, which I am and I'm not. As for the latter, most members of the British public would then expect my surname to revolve around the likes of either a Ghosh or Ali; well it isn't. I'm very Oriental as well as a happy and shiny Londoner. Thanks.

meemalee- that makes two us. Beautifully clarified, thank you. Are you a lawyer?

This is a food blog, I'm off to Dehesa for lunch tomorrow. If you wish to see my mug face then I might grant you an audience.

Oh I missed this debate. I guess I was cooking. Lunch at Dehesa was divine. I think the word Oriental is gorgeous and we are Occidental. If I'm in Asia, I refer to myself as Western.I think using the word Asian probably is a bit confusing in Britain. Have we come up with an acceptable word?Er..Southeast Asian? It's a bit complicated.